http://blog.insightyv.com/?p=488#more-488
“We the (Upper Caste) People” In continuation with the debate on media representation of caste issues, I am posting a small piece that was written by some of us together and published in our magazine INSIGHT third issue (November 2004). The TV channel, NDTV, under the programme ‘We the People’, organized a debate on the issue of ‘Reservation in Private Sector’. [Yes you are reading it correctly. There was a time, in recent past, when the Congress government did 'talk' about reservation in private sector but it seems no more on the government's agenda. Stung by 'upper' caste/class reactions on Mandal-II, Congress government is too scared to even mention about it now. ] Anyways, this article talks about our experience in the programme ‘We the People’. We were lured to participate in the programme by statements like, ‘We need pro-reservation voices in our programme. We need to have balance in our programme’ etc etc. So around 15 of us from JNU went to participate in this debate but came back to the campus completely numb with humiliation. This small piece was written at a time when all of us were just learning to articulate and write and hence was not able to capture what all happened before the programme, in between the programme and after the programme. Perhaps, there is a strong need for some of us to refresh our memories and write a fresh piece on what happened in ‘We the People’. Non Democratic TV Experience It began with a call. Students soon heard that a national debate on ‘Reservations in the Private Sectors’ was going to be televised and they had been invited. We started researching, reading and discussing among our selves to prime ourselves for the debate. On D-day, we were herded into a bus. The studio was empty and we were made to wait for over an hour for the galaxy of stars. During this time many urban, upper middle class people in the audience were airing private views. Statements like. “The Indian cricket team is already doing so badly: anyone can play this badly, there should be reservations in the cricket team as well,” abounded. Accompanying this were disdainful comments on the unruly nature and appearance of us students, who had come very obviously to defend the implementation of reservation in the private sector. The Stars finally appeared. Kancha Ilaiah, SK Thorat, D. Raja, Vivek Kumar, in favour of the motion, and Gurucharan Das against reservations and Dipankar Gupta doing the balancing act. We were a bit surprised that a private sector enterprise like NDTV had only one person against reservation. The arrival of Barkha Dutt changed the surprise to anticipation. And we were rewarded with a sympathetic opening. “Dalits have been denied space in the private sector since independence. Is it not our moral duty to implement reservation in the private sector?” To this all those in favour nodded in agreement into the cameras. The mike, of course, went to Gurucharan Das (GD). “Reservation in the private sector is not only foolish, it is unethical and immoral.” An uproar lifted out of the audience. The statement was meant to provoke and it had its effect. Hands went up everywhere and all the pro-reservation panelists were vying to respond. What GD’s statement did was to vitiate the atmosphere. What followed was not a debate. The CPI leader D. Raja responded with an attack on Indian industry. Prof Thorat and Prof Ilaiah tried to make some constructive suggestions but these were drowned out in the battle-like situation that had resulted. This was not entirely, because of GD’s statement. When to a claim by GD that reservation would weaken an already weak Indian industry, Ilaiah responded saying that Indian industry was weak because industrialists (like GD) employed their upper-caste relatives; Barkha Dutt chastised him asking him not to get personal. What we were observing was not a debate. It was a meticulously planned spectacle. A spectacle which was enacted with our unknowing participation. The four pro-reservation panelists were being portrayed as holding different positions that contradicted each other. They were ‘castiest’, ‘vulgar’ and did not know how to function with ‘decorum’ in civil society. Against this the sane and pragmatic voice of Gurucharan Das comes out. The middle position is that of Dipankar Gupta who manages to please both parties. Providing the background for this is an unruly audience trying to raise their voice, trying to grab space which is not theirs only because of their numbers as opposed to the serene clearly upper-caste middle class audiences, who were smirking benevolently at the tamasha that was being played out in front or them. Then came the part we should have known was coming but forgot to anticipate - the audience questions. At the end of the programme, three strategically placed people were approached by Barkha D. Audience 1: “I could not get admission into college because my father could not get me a ‘caste certificate’ because he was born as brahmin. Is it my fault? Now they want to take away my job also.” asked a well-dressed 20-something woman. Audience 2: “Let us look at ourselves. Educate the poor boys that work in our houses. If we cannot do this then what is the scope for reservation.” Audience 3: “Academicians and politicians should not be called here. Everyone knows that reservations will ruin the industry. First let them get 50% marks, fir aake bat kare.” As if this was not enough, as we were leaving, the suspicion in the eyes of the employees of NDTV was reflective of the entire event - that the national public space and the media are hostile, castiest and undemocratic. ------------------------------------ -- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTMedia mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to [email protected], OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE Share media news, discuss journalism issues and network with media professionals across South Asia on this mailing list. Just write to [email protected] TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTMedia by sending a blank mail to [email protected] OR, if you have a Yahoo! 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